Sjöbygget Trädgård Summer update

It has been so exciting! We started our open garden (or tea garden they say in the Netherlands 😉) beginning of June. Of course it was a challenge to fix everything in time. For me it was the first time to open up, so we needed to organize a basic outfit, such as coffee cups, a water can with communal water, enough chairs and tasty cakes but also a tiptop garden. Which actually ment some extra work. Most of them we managed so we could open.

We had some special events like the Lingonställen in the beginning of June 2022. It's a network of (mostly) small companies in the region of West Småland. The garden was perfect, the weather was too special on those two days. Though it had been raining a lot before (not so nice when you want to prepare). The only challenge left was the hare, who had been eating much more as last year. Last year we had some big Campanula's left (1 meter high) but this time they didn't come up at all because the hare was cutting the flowers like gras, same for all the Asters and Salvias. So we tried to protect a lot of plants with chicken wires and took away this irons just before the weekend. We were so happy we could welcome of a lot of people from the neighborhood as well from the Lingonstallen network.  

The garden was at it best around Midsommar. It was a big oasis of Daisies (Prästkragor), Columbines (Aquileias) and some left over Campanulas (Stor Blå Klockar). But of course, then we didn't open our garden but had nice time with nice food, beautiful summer weather and good friends around us. 

After the first openings we decided to have a växtloppis (sort of selling of small self grown plants) outside of the garden which is opened every day. People can have a look, take the plants they want to buy and pay digital. 

Normally the Tusen Garden event takes place around the last weekend of June. Because of Midsommar had took place a little later, beginning of July. It's an event of opened garden in total Sweden, from north to south. We had very nice garden weather again, not too warm not too rainy. 

The Land Open Garden half of July was successful too. We were very happy surprised so much people found our garden. There were not that much gardens in this area to make a combination, only in the direction of Värnamo. A lot of Swedish families made a day trip to this part of the region in their holiday time.

In between we had several private openings too, without any supporting network. Of course, little less visitors but good days too. I like to meet people and have a talk about gardening, the old school building or the regions history. Some families have been living in this neighborhood for a long time. 

It stays a challenge to manage nature 😜. They often say having a garden, is facing real life. With ups and downs, always something to solve or some extra challenge. It can be too dry, too wet or wild animals kill the plants you nourished for months without flowering this year.

And of course we are very dependent on dry weather, but till now only one weekend was very rainy but the positive side was, I ended up gardening and having fun for myself.

By the way, this summer season isn't over yet....so when you haven't been here, take your chance now!

Hope to see you...

Greetings from Brün

Välkommen in 16 and 17 July 2022 (11-16)

 

Welcome in our garden again. We have been watering, seeding and weeding and chasing the hare who's challenging. The hare seems to like the small fresh special plants the best. Or the Clematis we were so proud on, who reached the top of the climbing iron of 2,5 meter, totally ruined because he ate the tribe. It's such a pity he doesn't like the ground elder (kirskål). But it's still worth visiting us....

Or may be we can see you next time?

Tusen Trädgården 3 juli 2022

 

Sveriges största trädgårdsvisning!

The 3th of  July 2022 will a lot of garden enthusiastic people in whole Sweden open their gardens for curieus people. A nice day to learn of each other, to inspire or to enlarge the knowledge. Take the chance to visit one of the gardens, even when you are not that big garden enthusiastic yourself.

Here you will find all the gardens in Sweden (Besökstradgardar i Sverige). Please use the filter Tusenträdgården 2022 to find the open gardens this year.

We are very proud to join this event with Sjöbygget Trädgård. You will find our information here: About Sjöbygget Trädgård. We hope to see you soon!

Open Garden 2 & 3 juli 2022

 

Next weekend we will open our garden again. We hope it won't be too warm, that's better for the people and the plants. There are a lot of reasons to visit us this time:

Smålands idylle

Did you see the beauty of our garden? A lot of summerplants start flowering now. Even the Clematis started flowering and climbing the iron sculpture. There is a sort of meadow with a lot of daisies (Prästkragor). We have a nice orange Honeysuckle, deep blue and white Salvias combined with the old fashioned yellow Daylillies. Do you know what a bitch of branches means? Just come and see my winterproject yourself. Or or example Grandma's Peonies, you shouldn't miss their special wonderful fragrance. It's unforgettable!

Delicious homebaked fika

Have you tried our homemade cakes with very nice Swedish coffee? We have Dutch Apple Pie, Swedish Blåbär or a special vanille Tigerkaka with dark chocolate pieces. We you picked up your coffe and cakes you can go and find the nicest place in our garden. We have a lakeview, shadowsides, small places and places for families. I think you always can find a suiting place for you somewhere in our garden. 

Växtloppis

Have you ever heard about a växtloppis? It's a privat place where they sell self grown seedlings and create new small plants by splitting. We want to focus on Grandma's plants, the old fashioned ones, they often have more fragrance and are important for bees (because they are not sterile). Since some weeks we have such a växtloppis, just outside our garden. You will find for example Campanula's, Sedums, Nepeta or Sweetmaiden (Borstnejlikor). But also annuals like Amarathus (Rävsvans), Cosmos, red Sunflowers and a lot of Nicotianas (Prydnadstobak) in Limegreen, White and Rosa.  Last but not least? Do you want to have a quick growing summerplant to fill your border with? You need to buy a Ricin. It has wonderful big leaves and red small flowers but will grow 1,5 meter high. There are also some cherry tomatoes left, they already started flowering and will give tomatoes soon. You know what?  It's always opened!

We hope to see you soon, feel welcome!

/Brün 

Psst: I hope the plants survived the heat last week and the hare has left some Salvias, Phlox and Campanulas 🙈. But anyway, maybe you just need a escape to the country to relax 😄.

Don't you have the opportunity this weekend, there are more possibilities next week. 

Glad Midsommar (and next opening times)

 

We wish you al a very nice Midsommar together. Have fun en enjoy the good times with family and friends. We hope to see you (back) one of the next weekends when it's open garden time again. Just to enjoy a coffee and fika outside or walk around in our garden with a view on the beautiful lake.

We will be open next weeks:

Saturday 2 juli 2022      (11-16)

Sunday 3 juli 2022        (10-17)    (Tusen Trädgårdar Sverige)

Saturday 16 juli 2022    (11-16)

Sonday 17 juli 2022      (12-18)    (Land öppen Trädgård Sverige)

Saturday 6 august 2022 (10-15)    (www.lingonrundan.com)

Sunday 7 august 2022   (10-15)    (www.lingonrundan.com)

And maybe some extra openings in between...

Follow the announcements on weblog, (Facebook) or Instagram.

Of course the "växtloppis" is always opened, please take a look. I have made a lot of annual seedlings (blomstermorot, asters, Solros and Ricin) and perennial cuttings from all sorts of grandma's plants. Like daisy, campanula's and Asters. See it yourself when you visit us or you driving by on the way from Vittaryd to Bolmen 😉.

Thanks for visiting us & welcome back

 

What a beautiful weekend we got. Super weather, lots of sun (in the middle of very rainy days before and after....) and very much nice guests who came and visited us. A lot of them went around in our garden, tried a coffee or had some homemade cakes. You haven't been here yet? Please, come and see it next time when we are open, feel welcome. 

Thanks for welcoming us with Lingonställen in Västra Småland. We are very proud to be member in a network to promote this region. Of course, a picture was taken when Karin Lindahl was visiting us (in between Vittaryds Kyrka och Skällandsö 😉) . 

Beside of our lovely cakes and coffee, we sold some small loppis stuff and we had a växtloppis. 

That means, plants for sale, which we grow ourselves by sowing or the seedlings I find while cleaning the garden from weeds. We still have a lot of tomatoes, paprika, annual (ettårig) flowers like Cosmos, Tabak and Nattljus, but also grandmothers plants (perennials/perenner) like Akleja, Blågul, Stor Blåklocka and more. By the way, the plantmarket or växtloppis is always opened 😀😁. So when you want to take a look?

We (Peter, Steffi and Brün) like to thank all the people who came to visit us this weekend. 

Of course we hope to see you back next time also, for some relaxing in the garden, for a coffee or just enjoying a homemade cake from The Netherlands, Germany or a Swedish one. 

Lingonrundan 4 and 5 juni 2022

 

We will join this network of countryside gems in this region. It's all about foodculture, unique shops and experiences, locally produced handcraft in the heart of Småland. On the 4th and 5th of June (from 10-15 o'clock) they have a special open day. For more information, take a look on lingonrundan in Västra Småland .

At our place (nr. 36) you can visit our open garden, have a fika on a cosy place outside somewhere in our garden or buy some plants. We like to share our garden and the beautiful scenery near the lake Flyxen. 

You're very welcome to visit us!

Busy times preparing a garden

 

Normally this is always the most busy time of the year in the garden, April and May. You have some advantage when you start weeding early, of course it is easier to weed when plants are still small. Beside of that, next weeks we will have the famous midgets and horseflies over here, they make it impossible to work outside. But most important reason we are very busy tight now, is that we will join the next lingonrundan in Västra Småland on the 4th and 5th of June 2022 (from 10-15 o'clock). You can visit our open garden in the beautiful scenery near the lake Flyxen, have some fika outside on a cosy place somewhere in our garden or buy some plants.

So we need to finish a lot of things to be ready the beginning of June. We are preparing the garden to be good looking, with a lot of flowers and without to much weeds or to high grass. We have been creative with pallets and branches.We have been growing a lot of seeds and small plants for selling.

We are very happy with the result. The garden is nearly ready now. The last week we can start baking cakes. We hope to see you beginning of June, so you can see it yourself, you're welcome 😉

A bitch of Branches

Who's that girl....

One of my latest projects, I've been making a sculpture out of Willow tree branches. I prefer to call it a "bitch of branches" (so called "takkenwijf" in Dutch or "kärring eller häxa av pil" på Svenska). It started with cutting back our willow tree and in the neighborhood a lot of young trees were cut down by our neighbor. So lots of branches available. Years ago I got a picture from my friend Marjolein. Ever since I wanted to make something like this. So this was the moment to start it. 

We started with a wooden frame, covered with chicken wire, a lot of short cut birch branches (bjorkris) and a lot of patience. Just put in the branches round by round, hour for hour, in the early spring sun, til you get too much cold in your fingers. Inside a made the form of a head, out of willow tree. Later a started making the arms and body out of willow tray. 

The finishing touch was the ladies hair, some moss and a shawl of dried Clematis in her neck. I'm very proud about this project, though it took many hours te create it. But as long as you have fun and time, it doesn't matter. But it's too expensive to produce more of them 😄. 

Happy Easter

 

Do you need some extra inspiration to decorate your Easter? Take a look at the Easter decorations I made before. With only some Birch branches and Tulips or Blueberrie branches and Narcissus it is easy to create a colorful decoration. In the Netherlands they will have some curly willow branches decorated with colorful eggs. 

Dutch Easter decoration Picture Pixabay

Finally it is time to celebrate together again. Hopefully with your friends and family. Eating Easter brunch together, very popular in The Netherlands. You eat typical spring things like eggs (you really need to boil them in colored water or paint them with the children), sparris, salmon, cheese and lots of chocolates. You can have different sizes of chocolate bunnies or chocolates eggs filled endless sorts of tastes, like cream, egg liquor, truffel and so on. In the morning the children go out to look after chocolate eggs hidden in the garden. They are delivered by the Easter Bunny. 

Also in Sweden they celebrate together, mostly with family. Popular food is ham & eggs, fish and lamb. They also like the painted eggs. The eggs are delivered by Easter roosters. Children receive Easter eggs filled with sweet candies (instead of chocolates) and dress up like colorful Easter witches. And they have more Swedish traditions with witches....

We wish you good times together 💖. Let's be thankful we have this opportunity.

But don't eat to much eggs... Happy Easter, vi ses igen!